Health benefit costs per employee are projected to rise 8.2% on average in 2027, the steepest increase since 2003, according to preliminary results from a Mercer survey of more than 1,800 employers. New reporting shows the strain has reached people who work in health care.
A Boise, Idaho, family physician and his pharmacist wife dropped insurance for their family of four this year after their Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace premiums rose to nearly $1,600 a month, KFF Health News reported. A nurse practitioner at a Boise clinic kept her coverage but gave up dental insurance to afford it.
